Attachment: Influence of attachment on later relationships

Question 1

Internal working model

Answer 1

Suggests that a child bases their expectations of future relationships on their first attachment to their primary caregiver

Question 2

Relationships in later childhood

Answer 2

Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood
Kerns (1994) - securely attached infants have the best quality childhood friendships

Question 3

Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998)

Answer 3

Bullying behaviour can be predicted by attachment type
Used questionnaires to assess 196 children aged 7-11 from London
Secure children were unlikely to be involved in bullying
Insecure-avoidant children were most likely to be victims of bullying
Insecure-resistant children were most likely to be bullies

Question 4

McCarthy (1999)

Answer 4

Studied 40 women whose attachment type had been assessed in infancy
Securely attached adults had the best friendships and relationships
Insecure-resistant adults had problems maintaining friendships
Insecure-avoidant adults struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships

Question 5

Hazan and Shaver (1987)

Answer 5

Analysed 620 replies to a love quiz, which assessed the respondent’s current relationship, general love experiences and attachment type
56% of people were securely attached and more likely to have good/long lasting relationships
25% of people were insecure-avoidant and more likely to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy
19% of people were insecure-resistant
Findings suggest patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships

Question 6

Relationships in adulthood as a parent

Answer 6

Internal working models also affect the child’s ability to parent their own children
Bailey et al (2007) assessed the attachment of 99 mothers to their babies and to their own mothers, and the majority of women had the same attachment type to their babies as to their own mothers

Question 7

Weakness of influence of early attachments

Answer 7

Zimmerman (2000) assessed infant attachment type and adolescent relationships to parents and found very little relationship between the two
Assessing infant-parent attachments using an interview or questionnaire creates validity problems as they rely on self-report techniques
There are alternative explanations for the continuity that often exists between attachment type and later relationships, e.g. parenting style and temperament
Clarke and Clarke (1998) describe the influence of infant attachments on later relationships as probabilistic, meaning that people are not doomed because of bad early attachments, just at greater risk of future problems
There is a theoretical problem with most research related to internal working models in that they are unconscious but rely on a conscious self-report technique